Repaying The Favor
by Bree Colbern
Summary: Steve and Clint were never really the greatest of friends, but when tragedy strikes, sometimes that's where the strongest of friendships begin.


**Hey! So, this is my second story, I really hope you guys like it!**

 **Disclaimer: I own nothing. Nada. Not. A. Thing. :)**

* * *

Shots rung out all around Clint as he ran down a street in Germany that had seen much better days. Today they were facing a new threat; Baron Helmut Zemo. Clint had only caught a glimpse of the guy, and don't think he's crazy or anything, but the guy looked like he was the color pink.

He seriously had a mask on his head that was pink, who did that? Whoever it was, Cap said he was a serious threat, he had fought his father during the war.

Why Cap had never told them about the guy didn't make sense to Clint, but then again, not really anything the guy did made sense to Clint.

Not that it was really a bad thing, in a lot of ways he and Natasha were pretty similar.

Anyway, back to that Zemo guy, Cap said he had run into him not long before this, and the guy said something along the lines of seeking out revenge for Cap since he survived so long and yet his father died in a battle from Captain America.

Couldn't the guy catch a break?

Clint wondered as he jumped over to the ladder and used about three steps at a time and while also using broken windows to help him climb faster.

Right now him and Cap were fighting together in some small, recently abandoned because of Zemo, town in Germany, because it had been thought maybe Zemo was here, except Zemo wasn't here, but he definitely had been, and now a lot of his soldiers were left, leaving Steve and Clint to battle them.

Tasha was out doing some mission in China, for what, Clint didn't know, he just knew it was top secret.

And Tony, Bruce, and Thor are in some other city in Germany searching for Zemo. Steve and him had never really been very good friends, until Steve had saved his life one time during a mission.

Clint had been fighting on some undercover mission, but Steve had apparently somehow found out, Nick had said he'd talked it out of one of the agents, and Clint knew how good Steve was of coaxing information out of anybody, heck even Clint himself sometimes.

Anyway, Steve had found out that Clint was on a mission in Switzerland trying to take down Faustus. Having fought him himself, Steve knew just how dangerous this mission was...

* * *

 _Clint took in a ragged breath as he prepared himself for a battle against Faustus who was right in the other room going over plans to take down an Avenger, and it sounded like he was planning on taking down Tony, and then the others one by one, and Clint was not about to let that happen._

 _But he was not prepared for the attack at all, he was already worn out from tracking him down, and hungry and tired, and all he really wanted to do was go back home and have beer and just watch one of those stupid game shows with the others and laugh at how stupid it was._

 _Yeah, that sounded good, but no, he couldn't do that, he had to take down Faustus. He took a deep breath and looked around the corner, to find that Faustus was gone, and suddenly a gun's ice cold barrel was shoved into the back of his head._

 _"Ow," He muttered under his breath before he realized just what exactly was going on._

 _"Just go right ahead and put your weapon down," Faustus said in his stupidly calm voice._

 _"And if I don't?" Clint challenged and the gun's barrel was pushed harder into his head silently answering his question._

 _"Then I'm going to have to shoot you, and I don't feel like cleaning up that mess right now," Clint hesitantly laid his bow down and put his hands up in silent surrender._

 _But his actions said otherwise as he kicked behind him, knocking one of Faustus' legs out from under him, Faustus let out a cry of pain, and Clint couldn't help but smirk._

 _But that momentary happiness disappeared the second Faustus shoved him down on the ground, and Clint quickly turned around and scooted back to look up at the barrel of a gun._

 _"I don't usually fancy in just coming out and killing you, but I'm in a hurry to leave this place. It certainly was a pleasure knowing you, even though it didn't very last long._

 _Clint winced as Faustus started pulling the trigger, but instead of a gunshot ringing out, a sound of metal on metal rang out. Clint had looked up just in time to see a certain red, white, and blue Shield fly and hit the gun out of Faustus' hand._

 _Both Clint and Faustus looked to the side to see Captain America catch his Shield. He was just wearing civilian clothes and he looked out of breath. Faustus straightened and the two exchanged glares, while Steve very discreetly nodded his head once for Clint to move out of there._

 _Clint took this opportunity to quickly grab his bow and stand up to run over to Steve, because both Steve and Faustus never stopped holding each other's gaze; and Clint knew Steve did that on purpose so Clint could escape. "Captain,"_

 _"Faustus," Steve said, and Clint could practically feel the hatred in the room that those two had for each other._

 _"You two know each other?" Faustus huffed and then chuckled in amusement._

 _"He sent me to prison,"_

 _"You killed 13 people, you deserved to be in jail." Steve replied with._

 _"I was simply making way for the future, and you were almost one of those thirteen people, Captain." Steve's jaw clenched and Clint could see the rise of emotion in Steve's eyes._

 _"You threatened me with almost killing an innocent child, I had to give in." Now Clint was really confused, what had happened between these two?_

 _"Yes, and you were so dumb to do so. I was this close," Faustus put up his thumb and index finger and put an inch between them to explain how close it was, "This close, to figuring out the Super-Soldier serum, but you were taken by S.H.I.E.L.D right before I figured it out." Steve grunted._

 _"I was rescued, and I still almost died because of you, and I'm not letting you get away." Steve said right before he threw his Shield at Faustus who quickly dodged it and dived for his gun on the floor._

 _Steve took that chance and charged Faustus with his Shield in hand. Faustus shot, but it only bounced off of his Shield. Clint quickly ran and grabbed some of Faustus' papers that had his future plans of attacks._

 _Clint heard a gunshot ring out and heard a yelp of pain come from Steve and he turned around just in time to see Cap stumble back and blood start pouring out from a wound on his arm._

 _But that didn't stop him from kicking Faustus in the ribs, causing him to double over and drop his gun. Steve took that opportunity to use his Shield, and with all of his strength, he rammed it into the gun, splitting it in half rendering it useless._

 _Clint was so busy gathering the papers, he didn't even notice Faustus plant a bomb and take off for the door, after hitting Steve across the jaw with his fist, which he had a few metal rings on them for extra impact._

 _"So long, Captain," Faustus said with a hasty wave before retreating out into the darkness of the night._

 _"Clint!" Steve yelled as he ran over to him and shoved him under a table, throwing himself over top of him and covering them both with his Shield._

 _No more than three seconds later, an incredibly loud roar tore through the two-room building and shattered it. Clint could hear Steve's groans of struggle as he continued to shield them from falling debris._

 _Suddenly, Clint felt something rip through his flesh and a burst of white pain erupted through out him. He clenched his teeth, but for some reason his consciousness slipped away._

* * *

 _"Hey, buddy, come on, wake up, come on, Clint." A groggy voice said, but Clint soon realized his ears were making someone's voice sound that way as he fought through darkness._

 _His mind was in a complete fog and it was nearly impossible to break through the surface. "Come on, Clint, please wake up, help is on it's way, and we'll get you to a hospital in no time, but you have to wake up." After several more moments, Clint was finally able to crash through the surface, and as soon as he did, he could feel the pain coming on ten times stronger._

 _His eyes fluttered open, and thankfully there were no bright lights or anything like he had expected. The first thing he saw was an extremely dirty Steve hovering above him and he smiled in relief._

 _"Thank God," Steve mumbled. Cap's uniform appeared to be torn in several places and his face was covered in dirt and what looked like ashes._

 _"What happened?" He asked, and his voice sounded extremely hoarse and raspy, causing him to cough after he asked it. When he got done coughing he felt a heavy weight on his side and it hurt like hell. He feebly tried to push it away, barely hearing Steve._

 _"No, Clint, don't do that, you need this. I know it hurts a lot, but this is keeping you alive right now." Steve said, and Clint slowly looked down to see Steve's hands covered in blood on Clint's side putting pressure on spot on his torso. "W-what happened?" He asked frantically, only to be soothed by Steve._

 _"Hey, hey, calm down, you're fine, but you sort of got hit with a piece of metal during the explosion. It scraped open your side turning into a huge wound. You'll be okay, don't worry. S.H.I.E.L.D will be here any minute and you'll be on your way to the hospital, just, just talk to me, about anything, okay?" Clint noticed that Steve's arm and leg was covered in blood, but it wasn't Clint's blood._

 _"Y-your arm and leg..." Clint said, voice barely above a whisper._

 _"It's fine, Clint, don't worry about it. Now, talk to me about something else." Steve said, voice staying strong and calm; like this kind of thing had happened a thousand times to him._

 _And it probably had._

 _Clint took this moment to ask Steve about what had happened between him and Faustus._

 _"So, you, and Faustus, what happened?" Clint asked dazedly and Steve just sighed, probably because he was trying to get keep Clint talking so he stayed conscious, and knew that he couldn't avoid this._

 _"About a year ago, I went on a mission ordered by S.H.I.E.L.D, alone, and it was to stop some drug ring in Spain, but before I could do that, I was discovered by Faustus, because apparently someone had blown my cover in S.H.I.E.L.D accidentally, and he had found out about it._

 _We had a battle someplace in Spain, and I was just about to beat him in it, when he had held a gun to a little girl he had found, and I was forced to give up, you see, I couldn't just let him kill her because of me._

 _And well, he captured me and ran several experiments on me," Steve closed his eyes and grimaced, recalling the awful memory, and when he opened them, they were blank. There was absolutely no expression whatsoever._

 _"I went a over a week being beaten and starved by him, and when doing those tests, he had taken out so much of my blood, I-I almost died just from that, and then you add all the other things, and well, it was just-it was bad._

 _S.H.I.E.L.D had found me and had taken Faustus into custody, and then they had decided not to let anybody know what had happened in Spain for security reasons, and partially because I had asked them not to."_

 _Steve said, looking anywhere but at Clint. He could practically hear how tense Cap was right now. Man, he had no idea it had been so bad. And now Clint hated Faustus even more._

 _Clint could faintly hear helicopter blades in the distance, and apparently Steve could too, because he smiled in relief. Clint could feel himself losing consciousness again, and Steve must have noticed it too, because he patted his cheek, waking him up a little more, before putting his hand back to the wound._

 _"Sorry, but just a little bit longer, I can't afford to have you pass out now." Clint weakly nodded and it was only a few moments later, that S.H.I.E.L.D agents swarmed the building and put Clint onto a gurney and brought him to a hospital. And the whole time, Steve never left his side._

* * *

Clint smiled as he recalled the memory, sure it had been extremely painful and he had found out something about his Leader that he still struggled to understand to this day, but it had given them a closer bond, and that was something Clint wouldn't trade for anything in the world.

That was sort of the reason why they were both assigned on the same mission, because they could be miles apart and still know exactly what the other one was thinking.

"Hey, Clint," Cap's strained voice from the comms, broke through his thoughts.

"Yeah, Steve?" He asked as he continued scanning the area for some rogue guards that belonged to Zemo.

"I, could kind of, use, your help, down here," Steve replied with, words broken up by grunts and sounds of fighting.

"Where ya' at?" Clint asked, already on the move and off the building.

"I'm in the old Church." Came Cap's struggled response. Clint was off like a rocket towards the Church, when suddenly he heard three gunshots echo through the comms. He stopped dead in his tracks, because he knew Steve never used a gun, but HYDRA did.

"Cap? Cap? Steve, are you okay?" Clint asked as worry surged through him at the eery quietness.

"Y-yeah, I'm f-fine, just h-hurry." Steve said, and he heard another couple of shots ring out, and he quickened his pace.

He ran into building and was halfway up the steps, when Steve came stumbling around the corner, gun in one hand, and he had his other hand clutching his side, and that's when Clint noticed a whole bunch of blood on Steve's hands and on his uniform.

"Steve?" He asked, and he tried to start going down the steps, but lost his balance, and if Clint hadn't have been there, he would have fallen face first onto the steps, but Clint had caught him, thankfully. "Geez, Cap, what happened?" He asked as he carefully walked down the steps with Steve in his arms and gently laid him down so his back was up against the wall.

"S-shot." He managed to choke out.

"Where'd you get the gun?" Clint asked as he started inspecting the wounds, only to find three bullet holes on his front. He shook his head and cursed under his breath at all the blood pouring out.

"S-stole it f-from a guy t-trying to k-kill m-me," Steve said, before he weakly laid his head back against the wall and closed his eyes tightly. His panting became worse and now they were just quick short breaths.

"Cap, I need you to breathe for me, alright?" Clint commanded, but Cap's breath just quickened even more as he gasped for air.

"C-can't," He wheezed out, and then started coughing, and coughing, and coughing.

"Hey, come on, breathe with me, okay? That's an order, Soldier." Clint demanded, hoping that would get him to stop, but it just barely made a dent in his coughing fit.

After what seemed like hours, but was only a couple minutes, Cap stopped coughing and went back to resting his head against the wall, eyes blankly staring up at the ceiling.

Clint noticed some blood trickling down the side of his mouth, and fear of what that might mean, he looked down to where he had been coughing, and sure enough, there was a puddle of blood.

Suddenly, they could hear footsteps up the stairs with all sorts of commotion. "Great, just great," Clint muttered as he continued putting pressure on Steve's wounds. He was so deep in thought about what to do if, no, when they come down, that he didn't even hear Steve mumbling something to him. "What?"

"G-go, j-just go, t-they'll c'tch you," Clint scoffed at Steve's stupid heroicness.

"Cap, there is no way I'm leaving you, you didn't leave me," Clint said, determined on them both making it out alive.

"But, C-Clint, p-please, j-just g-go now," Steve said as he continued looking up at the steps, consciousness fading fast.

"No way, now you stayed with me, and now I'm staying with you, I'm sorta'," Clint shrugged, "Repaying the favor. So, I'm staying here with you." Steve sighed weakly and did a pathetic excuse of a nod. Clint called in S.H.I.E.L.D using Morse code and then brought up Tony and Bruce on the comms.

"Yeah, Legalus?" Came Tony's voice through the comms, and Clint notice Steve was getting delirious as sweat wetted his brow and he fumbled over the incoherent words he was mumbling.

"Cap's been hurt. Badly. He was shot by HYRDA and there's more coming, I need you guys to get here as fast as you can." Clint commanded, voice quickening as he heard the footsteps getting closer.

"We can't, Clint, we found Zemo and are preparing for the attack," Bruce said, worry evident in his voice. "How badly is he injured?" Clint sighed as he continued flicking his gaze back from the steps to his Captain who was slowly dying from blood loss.

"He was shot three times in the chest, and I'm guessing he has a collapsed lung, and on top of that he's starting to get delirious." Clint said, he could hear more footsteps coming and they were getting extremely close.

"Okay, Steve, we're gonna' have to make a run for it, ya' got it?" Steve feebly nodded and Clint carefully picked him up in his arms bridal style so he wouldn't wreck his lung even more. "Man, you're heavy." Clint muttered as he turned to go out the door.

"S-sorry," Came Steve's weak response. Clint was just about out the door when he heard a few gunshots, he froze in his tracks, afraid that HYRDA was already shooting at them.

He turned around to see a couple of HYRDA agents fall down to the ground and then noticed Steve still holding the gun. "T-they're coming, n-now," Steve said.

"Then let's go," Clint said, as he quickly ran through the town. They soon made it out to the town's border, and headed into the timber. "I told S.H.I.E.L.D to meet us in the next town, they should be there any minute, but we've got a couple more minutes." Clint said, before he realized he was talking to an unconscious Steve.

He gently jostled Steve to get him to wake up, but nothing happened. Clint watched the slow rise and fall of Steve's chest, and it was weakening rapidly, and Clint knew what would happen if they didn't get help soon.

He sped up his pace and basically just jumped over the fence that separated the two towns and ran to the center of it, to see a S.H.I.E.L.D helicopter waiting for them.

With a sigh of relief he ran as fast as he could to it and gently, but quickly handed Steve, who was slowly coming conscious, over to the S.H.I.E.L.D agents who put him on a gurney and immediately started working on him, but not before giving him some morphine, knocking him unconscious again.

Clint decided he wanted to ride with him, HYDRA could wait another day, but Steve couldn't.

* * *

Steve slowly woke up, and his eyes fluttered open, and then he slammed them shut against the bright lights of the hospital.

He slowly opened them again, to see Clint sitting next to his bed in some white plastic chair, sleeping. Steve smiled as he recalled everything that had happened, and how Clint had never left his side, now that was a true friend.

* * *

 **Ta-da! I have so much fun writing these stories! Please review! Until next time!**


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